A Most Fantastic Machine includes score and parts.
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Review from Percussive Notes (2021):
A Most Fantastic Machine
Nicholas Hubbell
This is a mixed-ensemble work for narrator and six musicians. The publisher’s website has a full audio performance along with a score sample. From the audio, we can hear that this work is approximately 15 minutes in length. This is a very interesting piece of music that involves not only percussion, but strings, woodwinds, piano, and a narrator. Therefore, it provides a great chance for percussionists to collaborate outside of their studio or even music department.
Often, as musicians, we make up a story to go along with the music that we’re playing, even if we never say the story out loud. In cases where we have narration, I think it’s important for us to understand the narration as much as possible. In this case, the story revolves around a lonely young boy who wishes to escape his troubled family life. The music provides a certain sadness at times, but also hints of imagination and hope for the future. I have no doubt that there would be people in your audience who would identify with this.
The music itself is very interesting, especially for the percussionist. It’s more akin to theatre work than the classic solo literature that you or your students may be used to. This may not fit so well on a percussion ensemble concert, but it could easily fit into a student or faculty recital of some kind and provide an audience with something different.
—Ben Cantrell
